Monday, February 10, 2014

Improv Round Robin

So finally, here's my report back on the improv round robin at our guild's recent retreat. Eight of us chose to participate and we were divided into 2 groups of 4. We all started out in a circle with our fearless leader Chandra, sharing our starter fabrics (we were asked to bring 4 fat-quarters), going over the guidelines, and doing a little pre-improv calming. Pictured are the fabrics I started with, and I gave my group permission to add whatever they saw fit along the way. Not everyone was comfortable with that, which was totally ok! We all also had a baggy of scraps to work with as we sewed through the challenge - there was a bit of confusion whether the scraps were for our own pieces or those we worked on. My scraps were very randomly chosen, so I hung on to them and added several into the various projects as I saw fit.
First off, we were asked to use our own fabrics and make a 'starter piece.' We had 15 minutes, and here's what I made:
Then it was time to start trading! I managed to run over to snap a quick shot at the end of each rotation!
 Notice at this rotation, mine was in 2 pieces!!
Here are each of the pieces I worked on, as I received them. I guess things were too hectic to get 'before' and 'after' shots!!


AND, here's what my piece looked like when I got it back!
Below are all 4 of my group's pieces with arrows indicating what I had added in. (Actually, the purple arrow shows where my original piece was.) The green arrow shows my row of wonky crosses; the blue arrow shows where I split the piece I received and added in a pieced component; the orange arrows show a small linen strip I made plus the wonky hst strip on the left, which actually wasn't even totally finished when I passed it on!
And all 8 of the "finished" improv pieces . . .
It was definitely an experience! I've dabbled with improv on my own, but never on the works of others, and never against the clock (we traded after 15, 20, 25, and 30 minutes in each round). I learned a couple of things through this experience:
  • Participating was a huge stress-inducer, and I had a major headache when I was done! (Random: daughter dear and I both joined in, and though we were in different groups, our sewing machines were across from each other. So we could encourage each other on, which was good, but we could also see what stress the other was under! Yikes.)
  • Though out of my comfort zone, and even considering the above, it was quite fun!      I felt energized!
  • I obviously defaulted to what was most familiar to me: crazy-pieceing, bits of linen, fussy-cutting, wonky crosses. These were spots of comfort to me in the moment.
Ok, so that's my little report on the improv round robin experience. All this in about 2 hours! If you've participated in a round robin, tell us about it in the comments or link to a post!

20 comments:

  1. Wow! It does seem rather hectic. Great pieces at the end. What will happen to them now?
    Valspierssews

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  2. Oh, what fun....wish I could have been there. What a grand way to improv.

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  3. yikes! It does sound rather stressful, but fun. saving this idea to share with my guild

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  4. yikes! It does sound rather stressful, but fun. saving this idea to share with my guild

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  5. was it fun though? I like the idea of thinking quickly and moving on. sometimes I obsess too much over little decisions.

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  6. Well it definitely was a learning experience! I've never done anything like that!

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  7. Oh my! Not sure I could handle the pressure...
    You did them all proud however

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  8. It looks like it could be loads of fun, but I can see where the stress kicks in. But without the timer on, there wouldn't have been any challenge to it. I'll have to find a group and see if that is something that could be done there. Not that I don't have enough stress going on right now...LOL!

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  9. I've only had the experience with paper crafting. Journal, tags, cards etc., and it has been good fun but at each whistle we were told to take a specific action, eg., colour a background, create texture,stamp it, add ribbon, cut it and reform etc. It was fun and made the decisions easier than it was for you.
    I'm hoping my quilting group will have a shot at it for fun.
    thanks for sharing,
    Jo

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  10. It looks like a fun experiment, kind of like round robin bees on speed :oD

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  11. They all look great, I'm really impressed. I've never tried a round robin bee but would be curious to try. I think the time factor would be very stressful for me.

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  12. For me, improv piecing is always calm and so relaxing, no pressure to measure or get points, so adding a stopwatch is about the opposite of that. You and your friends did really well, the pieces are all interesting.

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  13. Interesting......sounds a bit like speed dating, just kidding.

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  14. These turned out so cool! What a fun exercise!

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  15. I feel stressed just thinking about it - but the results are great! Well done!

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  16. I loved reading this and thinking that I would be so nervous. Then I laughed. It's funny that we can worry ourselves so much over a fun project that we're doing with friends. It's because we love it so much I think. Or at least for me, I love sewing and sewing with friends and I'd want my results to show that (i.e. be perfect of course...) I love your samples. Looks like everyone really went for it and had fun. :)

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  17. I guess that's not for me - your original "block" was so pretty - and all the end pieces seem so jumbled. Isn't it great that we all get to do our own thing?!

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  18. I just did the same thing at Sew Down last weekend! Definitely felt stressed out at the end of the workshop, but it was definitely fun in its own way!

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  19. several of the 'quilt ladies' and i from our quilting/hiking/lunching group are participating in a round robin. Each week someone gives a demonstration of a technique and once every two months we switch quilts. It is nerve racking to work on someone else's piece!! But it is even more rewarding and I think it is so important to face our fears and stretch and grow in this way. One other nice thing is that several of the folks who couldnt participate are serving as 'advisors' to help in times of stress or uncertainty. it's a real community builder!

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  20. I such a fun time doing this and I loved what you added to mine! Vicki is in for another round... Wanna join??? :)

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